David Grimes to challenge John Knight for Montgomery House seat

The long-expected Joe Hubbard-Dimitri Polizos House battle is off, but Montgomery will still see two State House veterans run against each other this November.

Former Rep. David Grimes, R-Montgomery, who narrowly lost his seat to Hubbard in 2010, has qualified to run against Rep. John Knight, D-Montgomery, in House District 77, which encompasses downtown Montgomery and a large chunk of territory between Interstate 85 and Southern Boulevard.

Grimes, whose old district was moved to Shelby County under redistricting approved in 2012, said John Knight was his reason for running.

“John Knight inherited so much of my old District 73,” he said in a phone interview Friday afternoon. “I do not feel in any way he can serve those people because he does not share the values those people share. He is a Democrat. He is a liberal Democrat.”

Knight, who has served in the House of Representatives since 1993, declined to comment on Grimes’ remarks, saying he was a “fine person.”

“I think the values I represent are the values of the people I represent,” he said. “I’ve worked for economic development, I’ve worked for low-income working people.”

Knight’s district has a heavy Democratic tilt, and Grimes acknowledged the difficulties a Republican would face in the campaign. He would try to tell voters he was the candidate who could best “support them and their families security in state government.”

If elected, Grimes said he would work toward unifying the state’s two budgets, saying it would bring order to the sometimes chaotic budgets and make it easier to give pay raises to state employees.

“Every year, one (budget) is poor and one is rich,” he said. “And that’s not for the betterment of the state or the people.”

Grimes was first elected to the House in 2002, and served two terms. He was the only Republican incumbent to lose his seat in the 2010 election, and has multiple sclerosis. Grimes said Friday he felt good, and was “healthier than I’ve been in 10 years.”

Hubbard had been expected to challenge Dimitri Polizos for House District 74, but Hubbard announced Thursday he would run for Alabama Attorney General. As of early Friday afternoon, no other Democrat had qualified to challenge Polizos.

In other races, Therese Ford, who ran against U.S. Rep. Martha Roby, R-Montgomery, in 2012, qualified to run as a Democrat in House District 75, encompassing eastern Montgomery County and portions of Elmore County. Montgomery County Commissioner Reed Ingram is seeking the Republican nomination for the seat; incumbent Rep. Greg Wren, R-Montgomery, will not seek re-election.